[Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] of heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] And I have [Applause] Okay. Yes. I mean, we know that we know that MRI that she does pressure. [Music] I'm looking for Dr. But it is that [Music] [Music] Call to order the Centennial School District School Board work session regular meeting Tuesday, June 10th, 2025. Mrs. Rou, can you make a roll call, please? Mrs. Sprinkado here. Mrs. Crossson present. Mr. Ghart here. Mr. Godson present. Mr. Hartline present. Mrs. Lynch. Dr. Maguire here. Mr. Martin. Mr. Saddowski. We have seven members present. Thank you. Can we stand for the pledge of allegiance, please? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all America announcements. We had um an executive session meeting to discuss personnel matters and um a security update. Uh, Mr. Greenwood, you are up. Pardon me. Excuse me. I thought I thought Dr. Excuse me. I thought Dr. Um, he does, but he says budget presentation, Mr. Greenwood. Your first What's that? Your first victim. my I have to change my uh change my plan. Can I make a comment first that the the flags are um for we just passed Memorial Day and for Fourth of July since we're not going to be here for the 4th of July. So flag day is Saturday. There we go. Thank you. Sorry. Wonderful. All right. Well, thank you very much. Um we are hopefully coming towards the end of the budget process. Uh we have this meeting and we have a meeting hopefully on the 24th to approve a final budget. Uh hopefully get it done before uh the deadline of uh June 30th. Um so not knowing that I was coming up first, I uh I had this slide, but you I don't want to steal the thunder of uh of my colleagues. uh but uh the first two items that were discussed back in January at our workshop was continue to improve and focus on student achievement and I think uh that is happening in abundance. Uh Mr. Rutz and Mr. Gabriel and the teaching and learning group as well as our teachers, our uh coaches, our specialists, uh our administrators and and most of all our students are really doing an amazing job. It is an amazing turn of events. Uh we've talked about growth. We've got growth now. We've got achievement and uh it's really great news uh for the district. So, there's a lot of great things going on and um you'll hear about them shortly, but all of that ultimately ties into the budget. Uh a quick look at our timeline. We had posted our PDE 2028, which is the state's uh budget form that went online uh under the business office. Uh May 30th, uh we are posting our public notice of the intent to adopt. That'll be in this Friday's paper and we'll leave us uh only the the 24th to try to close this out. I think as I talked about back in in January, right, the budget processes it's it's a long road. Uh we get data throughout the year, throughout the last 6 months to try to make decisions and and understand where those costs are coming from. the current budget which is you'll see the various versions that have been shared uh at these meetings. Uh the current budget shows 151,94,000 in revenue with expenses of uh 156,447,000 uh in expenses for a deficit of $4.5 million. And that assumes the full Act One increase of 4%. That was 4.9. What was that? I'm sorry. It's $4.5 million deficit. Okay. Um, this slide shows the current forecast, right? So, we've talked about this. We've had uh discussions within the finance committee as well. Uh, we are anticipating um a roughly $2.7 million credit from the IU. uh in this current year uh that credit needs to be applied. I used to have this weird window. Uh but going forward, credits are going to be applied to that current fiscal year. So, we're going to need to apply that $2.7 million to our 2425 school year. Uh we should get it probably in September uh or so, but before December is is what I've been told. Um, so what we're looking at on this slide is is our original budget for this year had $2.7 million coming from our uh our debt service fund to offset our deficit. And what we're looking at now is keeping that money in the debt service account uh and utilizing that credit from the IU uh accordingly. Um there is also a 2324 uh bill that will be outstanding that we had from the IU the last the prior year. We were uh we were over our budget uh in IU services by $934,000. I'd like to pay that in this 2425 school year to sort of clean the books and keep us then moving uh straight and uh straight and narrow going forward. Any questions on that? That's sort of just the forecast piece. As we look at at the budget, um you can see here uh what jumps out probably first is you know sort of at that operating margin be before any fund transfers. Uh we are at a deficit every year uh including our forecasted year. Um but we are you know 5 years of of projection projected deficits. um that will that will take us uh take us to 2030. Uh and that deficit assumes the full act one increase in each of those uh years. Um the independent fiscal office, the IFO had forecasted through 2029 as to what they expect the act one to be. Uh and that's what is calculated in each one of those years. Um in 2026 you'll see uh along with it the total deficit is at $4.5 million. Um we we reduce half of that by the or 2.7. Um if we then move that debt service transfer to this next year uh that leaves us with a million8 uh an additional deficit uh that we'll need to work through. um at the end of that year our fund balance would be at $10 million. Okay, this slide just looks at the impact of the act one increase uh at various levels um as and the impact of that compared to the operating surplus or deficit um starting at zero. So, if we had a zero uh% increase, uh the annual taxpayers tax bill would go down by $24.65 because of the Homestead Farmstead rebate, assuming that they had applied for it. Um and our deficit would be uh 8.1 almost $ 8.2 million. On the other side of that, uh 4% if we enacted a 4% increase, uh the millage rate would go to 1730723. Um that would uh cost the average the median home owner uh $14362 um after the homestead rebate. And the homestead rebate is really just looking at the change from one year to another. Um the homestead rebate this year uh we are going to receive $3.3 million from the state. That's from gambling revenues that are collected. Um and that is I think the last year was 2.9. So that number is growing every year. Uh as we all watch at least I do a lot of sports and a lot of TV. Uh there's an awful lot of gambling going on. Uh so so we are we are the beneficiaries of that in to some degree. Um and then between those two points between zero and four there's each maturation of what those numbers look like uh with so the deficit ranging from the 4.5 uh 4.5 million with a 4% increase to an $ 8.2 million deficit uh with a 0% increase. Any questions with regard to this chart? Seeing none, we'll move on. Um, this slide is a slide that we have shared in the past and really is just the difference uh for the district's perspective between the act one index and um and the board approved uh increase. the board, we have not put forth a act one uh we've not had an act one increase a full act one increase uh in the past five years. Um so each year we get a little bit further away from that number. Uh so the top line is a hypothetical if you chose the act one increase each of those years. Uh this year because of that compounding impact uh you'd have almost $92 million. Uh without that, the current plan would be about $89 million, a difference of uh $2.6 million just yeartoear as that goes on. Um so by not reaching the act one index, uh the gap between these two lines will continue to grow. Um and as will our deficit, right? As will our deficit. and looking at the details. So, the next couple of slides are going to be focused on our uh you'll you'll see three years worth of actuals. You'll see our forecasted 2025 and then our projections uh for 2026. Um looking at uh the millage rate for the count uh the different districts in Bucks County. Uh not the this current year, but the prior year FY24 uh Centennial was right in the middle, right? There were seven that had a lower millage rate than us and there were seven districts that had a higher millage rate than us. Um there's, you know, some commonalities between uh between those districts as noted. As we continue to focus on the on the revenue projections, there's a couple of of changes that are going on within the economy. Um the first of those is our uh earnings on investments, right? The districts uh invest in bonds which were very limited on the things that we can invest in. Uh so as interest rates get pushed down uh bond rates sort of follow suit. So when the bond when interest rates were higher uh the bond rates were higher uh our ability to make money from those investments was significant. Um, in 2024, we had $3.4 million in investment uh income, which is fantastic, right? In 2022, in the midst of the COVID when they pushed the interest rates down, right, to next to nothing, right? We had $66,000. So, there's a grand swing of of revenue that is uh in our system, right? We have been uh throughout that period of time, we've been very cautious in our spending and in our planning to make sure that we were able to uh to take those positive surpluses and put them into the debt service account, if you will, or debt service fund, which is sort of a rainy day fund for the district. That's been very helpful in increasing our overall capital fund and our uh fiscal stability. When I got to Centennial, I think our capital fund had, you know, $300,000 in it and we really needed to do a bond issue in order to just be able to get things done. Um, we are in a much better place today and I know that back then that was sort of the plan uh from the prior CFO. He said, you know, we've got to get this bond uh deal done and we did and it worked out. But I think if as long as we're able to continue to save money to put money away, then we do have money for uh we have money for those rainy days. We have money to buy buses. We have money to keep our facilities up to date. Um so those are all important aspects uh of the of the process uh along so that's the sort of the skinny on the local revenue. uh on the state side, right? The state, as I've complained for the last three years, we're no closer to a state budget today uh than we were in January. Um sometimes I think my budget process moves slow. Uh I feel I'm at least working on it for every every month of the 6 months between January and and today. Uh I don't know if if the state does, right? They they talk about it, the governor shares something. There's some scruffle in the beginning and then I don't think they really talk about it. I'm sure I'm mistaken. Uh but you know, it's really in June that discussions seem to happen. Um and which is a shame because every school district is sort of in the same spot. We rely on to some extent money from the state. Uh and while that gets negotiated, we don't have the luxury of not passing a budget. We don't have a luxury of putting it off until July, until we hear from them. We need to sort of commit uh uh blindly to move that forward. Um, so what we are anticipating, uh, and as not just researched by myself, uh, but also the Department of Education, our local PASBO group, we have expected basic ed and special education funding. We're looking at an incremental $29,000 increase over last year. For the prior three years, that number was over $800,000 a year. Right? There was a big move by the state, by the governors um to put money into education. They are still doing that, but they are now targeting schools that are uh more financially distressed than our own district. Uh and that's sort of where the money is going. So, you know, $200,000 in special ed that that that that that's uh that's a that's a drop in the bucket. I I hate to say I don't mean to be um naive or or callous, but special education costs I was just in in a meeting earlier today. The IU cost, the IU hourly rate for services is up 8%. Before you buy a thing, right, you've got to then add people to that. It is an expensive proposition and we are continuing uh to work through that. We have an excellent uh special education team led by uh Gina Ross who's done a phenomenal job for us and a phenomenal job uh making sure our kids are where they need to be which is first and foremost. Uh but it is a it is an expensive proposition and it $29,000 from the state that's a pretty tough pill to swallow. So, these are costs that if they're if we're not getting the $800,000 from the state, you know, there's nowhere else we can turn to, right? It's sort of a local local revenue. I should probably build the chart differently and start with the fed and move down because at the end of the day in Pennsylvania, it's up to local communities to fund public education. And that's sort of the rule as it has always been. Um, you know, when I had children in my local uh school district and paid taxes, you didn't think about it. They've since moved out. They've grown up. We still keep paying the taxes because the school district is important, right? The school district is important to me in my area. It's important to all of you because it does support uh home values as well. So, there is a component to that. At the state side, um we got through that. On the federal side, we're now return to precoid levels. So, for the past 15 years, uh, the federal government has thrown in about $1.5 million. It's made up of title funding. It's made up of access Medicare funding. Uh, but that seems to be the number. I can look back as as far as I could see. And that $1.5 million, you could always take it to the bank, but unfortunately, it never gets any never changes. Uh, as a board member, uh, Mr. Miller used to say often, right, if it's not changing, it's declining, right? So, he would often share that because it's not keeping up with inflation. Nothing nothing has cost the same today as it did 15 years ago. Uh certainly not in in the education space or in any in any operating space. Just a quick look at our enrollment, right? We had an enrollment study done last year. That enrollment study projected an ongoing increase for the uh over the next six years uh of in centennial enrollment really starting at the elementary level. I think we are continuing to see that over the past couple of years. Um as well as we're seeing a change in our dynamics, right? We're seeing a change in what our student population looks like. We have a higher uh a higher number of lowincome uh students. We have a higher percentage of special education students. This shows 22% in 2024. I think this year's number is actually closer to 25% of our students uh IEPs and special needs uh as well as EL students, students that aren't necessarily speaking English uh at home. That number is growing as well. So the overall population or over enroll overall enrollment is growing but the enrollment with kids with special needs is also growing right they have needs that we need to we need to support and uh and look after um and one of the earlier reports this year um uh Mr. ruts stood before us and and what was great was despite those challenges that these students have all CSD uh growth there was growth across the board uh for all CSD uh students which is really fantastic just as as a recap because I think sometimes we lose perspective in terms of savings. So, uh, as the board challenged us, um, we went back and through the months of, uh, April, we looked at the savings. We looked at targeting savings. Uh, as we shared in one of the presentations, right? Not all dollars and all sources are are the same. Some things you just have to have. Uh, some things are already in the contract. So, the savings is isn't as easy as just taking uh 5% across the board. Uh but as we look at historically we've saved between, you know, $1.5 to $2 million a year uh in in cuts and in reductions. Last year we we had some some things we put off, right? So we put off uh the tech refresh to save us $476,000. That was a good one-year sort of stop gap, but we're going to pay that now. So this year we're going to have, you know, almost $800 million in uh tech refresh just because we skipped that year. Um if we look at what we have done in the past couple of months, we're at about $1.3 million in savings. That comes in part within technology. 1.4 1 point what's that? 1.4. Sorry, Dr. Ben. Uh comes in in technology. We saved probably $367,000 uh based on our retirement incentive that we had shared with the board and the board approved uh by increasing the number of days. I'm not sure if that's the the straw that breaks the camel's back or that sends you off into retirement and in in a happy in a happy way uh but we will probably save that. And that's really the difference between uh a salary of a retiring teacher and the salary of someone coming in uh lower on that scale. uh school districts. We went out to the schools. I met with each of the principles at every school uh and I said, "I need I need 5% of reductions. I we need to find it." And we were able to do that. Just over 5.1% uh savings at the school level. School level budgets are much smaller. Uh so that 5% 51 uh $51,000 is meaningful to them. the average school budget is much smaller uh because most of those cost most of the costs to education um short of the people is is really housed in the uh department of teaching and learning that's where the curriculum and all that data and all that information comes from districtwide when we look at the administrative groups we look at the business office we look at teaching and learning we look at technology uh we had reductions compared to the prior year of over $500,000 which is a much larger budget budget. Uh but again, 2.8% savings. Uh and our staff reorganization, which we did um at the beginning of this uh school year, uh where we adjusted staff and responsibilities. That would save us that you know is another $183,000 as we look at rolling that forward. For a total uh the four-year savings as we look at is is over $6 million. So, I think that is a uh I appreciate the push from the board. Uh but it's something that we we do regularly as part of our budget process. On the expense side, we you know, contracted salary increases are are wrapped up inside of that salary line. The act uh the teachers contract that was approved last year. We're working through agreements uh this year with our act 93 group and next year with our support staff. So those assumptions are are built in and calculated into that salaries line as are the accompanying benefits and within benefits that is not just health care it's peasers uh which is a large share. Peasers is now uh it stayed flat. It's now starting to march north again. So, we're going to go from uh 39 to 30 33.9 to 34% this year. Then I think it's going to be jumping at least a half a percent or a little bit more every year the following year. So, Pasers had a big runup uh from from the early days when it was in the teens. Uh then it was making major jumps. Uh the pension piece is is a mandated cost for all school districts. um we we don't have a say in you know uh Tom doesn't want it and and this person does. It's a 30 34% mandated cost on every salary uh that we pay. Um if we look at the other areas uh and across the board, a couple of uh areas jumped out uh growth in other purchased services that grew $570,000 compared to last year. Uh a couple of areas to uh call out. Uh within special education, we had an increase of $439,000 in outplacement uh services. Um we have a little bit of a a turn, a twist, a little increase in uh charter tuitions for the past several years. Uh due to our CVLA program and the success of it, we've actually seen a steady decline. We're sort of seeing that level off right now. Um there is an opportunity in Harrisburg today that uh the governor had proposed which was to cap cyber tuition uh at a flat number. The governor's number was $8,000 because as he shared it's cyber so you could be anywhere you want to be. uh and the cost dynamics it is much you know salaries in southeastern Pennsylvania are much higher than salaries in middle Pennsylvania uh or further west um so it depends where you're at. So right now, cyber charter schools get what we pay for, right? So we're having a kid in cyber charter. We're paying for that kid at a rate of, you know, almost $18,000 a year, right? In middle Pennsylvania, they're not paying $18,000 a year for that charter, that same cyber charter experience. So hopefully, it seems like action is being taken. So there is opportunity there. But again, it's not it's not a done deal yet. Uh and we are probably far from that. So, we'll keep our fingers crossed and and hope we get some uh get some love there. Um transportation within the IU. Uh we use the IU in support of our own transportation needs. We have a jump in that line of $250,000. Uh supplies, which is somewhat of an an ambiguous term. Um right, when I think of supplies, you know, I'm thinking paper and pencils, batteries maybe. uh but uh within within our uh PTE chart of accounts supplies also include curriculum. So as we have talked about over um the past 6 months uh Mr. Rutz and his uh his RFP with it went out looking for a new aligned science curriculum. Um what's it called? Anthony Sed open sed. Thank you. Open siad. Uh which was the the winner uh of our of our review. Um that list of curriculum is is going to cost $400,000 uh this year. It includes open sed which is a aligned curriculum for science uh K to 8th grade. Um, we have Spanish and uh Spanish and French curriculum coming up and our wit and wisdom which is our EEL. Is that correct, sir? ELA. ELA. Thank you. I knew I'd forget a letter. Um, that is that is expanding to the seventh grade, right? And we've really seen great progress with this aligned curriculum. So, I'm just going to use that word remember that when the smarter people get up to this podium, right? and talk about uh what wonderful things they've done because it's really been a change in the district offering consistent aligned curriculum uh under Dr. Bettton's leadership. It's been tremendous. So that just brings me back to uh sort of to where we started and to what we are projecting along with the the rate charts and where we have each of those the board you have all a copy of these in front of you. Um so you know uh hopefully they're you can read them. uh as well as you have additional charts that look at the details as you had also asked for at an earlier budget meeting uh to see the the nuts and bolts and not to see everything rolled up. So we tried to roll everything out uh and have some extra pages of reading for you. Um, so that that sort of brings me to to my end and and I I'll stop for a second and ask if anyone has any questions relative to the numbers and as to what we have shared this evening. Mr. Greenwood. Yes, Mr. Martin. Uh, two weeks ago a proposed budget was adopted by the majority of the board with a deficit of $5.8 million. Correct. Somehow I'll I'll attribute it to your expertise in the last two weeks that has been reduced to 4.5 million somehow. Correct. Are you projecting any further reductions in that in the next two weeks? Uh I am not although I'm keeping my eyes open, right? I don't uh uh uh this is this is this is what I'm doing day in and day out right now. Uh so this is the slide that you're referring to. So uh you're correct. May 27th I stood in front of you and I said the proposed budget is one with a 4% increase and that that would leave us a deficit of $5.8 million. as we looked at our uh our reimbursement uh that the district gets from state um state for peasers and for social security. I looked at that a little closer. I analyzed where we were and what we were trending towards. So that was a number that increased um as well as uh tightening up um the labor and the staffing numbers. Right? As I talked to Mr. heartline. We discussed um that savings from the retirement savings, right? That was a number that went in that was worth as I think the chart said $378,000 or thereabouts. Uh so that was another number that we were able to plug in as we sort of got through that process. Some things just it takes some time uh to make sure we have everybody lined up and we're looking at the full group. So thank you very much for calling that out. Mr. Hart, you next Martin ask my question. Okay, see if I can get back to the bottom. So, uh, with that, as I, as I shared in the beginning, you know, I'm going to be looking for the board, and I'll present this to the finance committee this week, uh, to approve processing that 2324 IU invoice in this current FY25 school year, uh, at a cost of $934,000 that wasn't already in our budget. Uh but I'd like to process that uh and have that uh you you know utilizing our our current fund balance to do that. Um it seems I no one asked any questions but the move uh instead of taking that uh $2.7 million from debt service this year and having a surplus to leave it there that seems to be make the most sense. Um and we I'll be looking for you. We'll continue to to reach out to board members uh and try to understand where everyone sits with regard to the uh to the act one increase. Yes. And we had I mean we had talked in previous meetings about our plans to try to restructure debt etc. Have you placed any of those numbers like when we went back through the you had done the the breakdown of the 1.4 million that we had you know anticipated or cuts that were made. Um, are we just kind of holding steady on that for the time being, not knowing because it's kind of the wild card as interest rates and what's going on? It is. So, uh, I I'm I'm only holding down holding out and putting it in the in the machine. Right. So, I haven't I haven't shown any savings. those savings that will come from the refinance that we are hopeful to do uh towards the end of this summer as well as a refinancing that we are sort of simultaneously pushing forward uh that'll happen uh early next year, February of 2026. Those are both refinancings uh that we're looking to do uh to save money. Some schools refinance and they pull the money out, sort of like a a home loan. You can redo your mortgage and take money out. Uh what we did uh at the start of this year was to refinance and put those savings back into the bonds which reduced and will save taxpayers upwards of $4 million uh over the course of that debt. We're looking to do something similar. The bonds that are refundable at this point are much smaller in size. So we're not expecting a $4 million windfall. Uh but we are expecting a windfall, right? We're expecting some savings to come of that and we're looking at pushing that back in to reduce our debt service. Right. The district's debt service uh was second highest among schools in Bucks County only behind Quakertown uh where we had 12.9% of our debt service. Debt service made up 12.9% of our general fund expenses. Right? So the first, you know, first 12.9% goes to making sure you pay your debt. Uh so we've been trying to work that down. That number is now south of that number which we are uh we're very happy and proud about. Yeah. So there's you know to Mr. Martin's point there is a potential for an additional savings but we're really not going to be able to realize that until we get closer to the August September timeline to do it. I think those things will will help minimize that balanced deficit that we have. Right. So, we're going to move 2.7 from the debt service fund in next year to cover that, but that's still left a million8 to cover, right? So, things like uh the refinance could chip away at that. Things like um the uh the cyber charter in in Harrisburg, right? That could that could save you $500,000 if if the number was $8,000 capped, right? So there are opportunities out there uh because they're not known because they're not committed to uh I am a little sheepish if you will and trying to get out there on my own. Okay. I say I do want to point out too that the we'll call it a true up for the IU that $900,000 where the IU used to lag in their billing. Now this will make us they've changed the way they've done their billing. This will make us even. So going forward we will not be paying the 2526 bill in 2627. We're now going to be paying 2627 and 2627 etc going forward. So there is no lag so that it'll be a lot smoother for us to do budgeting going forward as well. It should be it should all be more important that we square with those because you know the good news is you we're a little bit over this year and we're going to get the money back. Uh, conversely, uh, the prior year, you you'd be paying that 900 something thousand dollars. Yes, Mrs. Cross. So, I do appreciate you sharing with the community. I, um, going to the each school and getting the reduction that, that's very impressive and thank you for going above and beyond and getting that done. Has there been any guidance from our board, any suggestions that you've been emailed or any any form of reduction that has been suggested to you from us? There is not. I mean, I say other than what we repetitively go over in finance, it is so it's tough. I mean, it's going We're in a pickle here because if we don't do the 4%. Yes. And that's a huge increase for our community. It would mirror last year's. Yeah. Financially, we are not sound and our board has no we are not at the moment. Yes, keep keeping in mind that as well there are things that are out of our control that we are getting double hit on. Example being increase in benefits, increase in special education costs, increase in the number of students that we're servicing. I mean, kudos to our administration. When you look at close to 25% of our students having IEPs, just the personnel hours to be able to evaluate all those students multiple times a year eats into our our personnel heavily and it is and that number is just continuing to grow and it's disproportional to I mean act one increase. It's not that anybody be advocating for an 8% increase, don't get me wrong. Well, no, but all the all the things that you've mentioned all of our community members are feeling. Yes. increase at the grocery store, increase in electricity. So, they're all taking the hit, too. So, it's it's alarming that we're not financially sound and I know that you don't have control of that. We have control of the increases that we do, and we are not doing a good job. I think it it is a it's a difficult, right? It's it's a you know, you're in a we're in a pinch right now, right? because of of things of outside of our control, whether that is the state funding, whether that is federal funding, right? Whether those things are are outside of one's control. So, we're very limited in the things that the the levers we have, if you will. Uh we worked very hard uh last summer uh to come up with a what we thought was an improved prescription health care plan. Uh that is a self-funded plan, right? We spent a lot of time on it. spot a lot of work. Uh cost to employees went up as co uh as uh as co-ayments uh for those drugs, but the cost of prescription drugs uh particularly specialty prescription drugs has gone through the roof. Right? Our 55% of our prescription drug expense is on specialty drugs, right? Servicing a a you know group that's 1% of the total population within the district. So, while we've tried and I think we will continue to work on ways uh as Mr. Harline shared of reducing costs, uh we are certainly in a bind and and certainly need guidance from you uh Mrs. Crossen and the board in terms of how we want to move forward in this period of time because as we shared in the beginning, right, we're we're at the end of the line now. Uh so, we're going to have to we're going to have to put a stake in the ground. We're going to have to move forward. um and and understanding um you know you'll see the the the slideshow after this. It it should make us proud because the money we are spending uh we're spending it correctly, right? And you know whether that's on the coaches, whether that's on the specialists, whether that's on our teachers, uh our support staff, right? All of those people make up uh the organization and our more more so our students, right? Those guys are crushing it. They are really doing a great job. It was great to be at graduation. It's always fun to do that, watch them come through. Um, it's it was quite a quite an experience this week. All right. Thank you for your hard work. I appreciate it. Any other questions? All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. So, now that we've experienced the doom and gloom, now that we've had doom and gloom, uh, I'd like to take this opportunity to bring some joy. Now, one of the things that when I arrived, uh, there was a person to my far right around the corner diagonal over there whose comments were about doing better. And then there was a person to the right of Miss Broncado who when is our achievement score going to go up? When is our achievement score going up? Yeah. So, I would say that uh I am thrilled uh tonight to have uh our OTL team come up and share with you the preliminary 2024 2025 uh growth and achievement data. As I begin to wind down and end my time here in Centennial School District, I feel that for the people sitting here and those who are watching, uh, we've done a herculean job of of getting a good return on investment, even with tax increases that remained over the past 5 years below the act one. uh the information you're going to receive showcases the remarkable academic recovery and impressive gains our students have made uh particularly in mathematics since co 19 pandemic because I arrived here in the midst of September 2020 when the bottom was falling out on everyone because of the impact of co and the pivoting that school districts had to make to try to still deliver services. Uh, I would say that the success is a direct result of our unwavering commitment to the district's mission and to effective implementation of evidence-based systems approach and consistent curriculum. Uh, we pushed, we made changes, and yes, the teachers have always been here, but what we did change is instead of asking them to carve a turkey with a spoon, we actually gave them knives to actually be able to take part in a meal to get better outcomes. It doesn't matter how great you are as a teacher, if you're not being provided a aligned curriculum, it won't work. And during this presentation, you'll see how our strategic efforts have led to significant improvements across key areas. Uh Mr. Russ would share high level data demonstrating the PSSA mathematics achievement has not only recovered, but it has surpassed pandemic pre- pandemic level. I mean, we have doubledigit growth since 2021 and year-over-year improvements in mathematics, not only in growth, but in achievement scores. You'll also hear about the promise recovering ELA, which is tougher to recover from. English language arts, especially when you saw the shift in the demographics of our population. They need more and they will get there. That is not saying they won't get there. It just sometimes take, you know, students are like popcorn. You put popcorn kernels in a microwave, they don't all pop at the same time. Every student doesn't pop at the same time. Yeah. Um meaning each kernel is different. Each colonel is different is what I'm getting at. But you will get see particularly strong growth in our upper elementary and middle grade levels, which is going to highlight that the students that have had more time in our curriculum that we've changed actually are showing the results. And even where it's down still below pre- pandemic, you will see significant andor improvements in every area from last year, even on our achievement scores. You will also see the compelling evidence that the local level assessments. And what that means to the people here is that we do those in between the state assessments because if we don't know what's happening with kids while we're it's like a doctor we have to take the pulse to make corrections while we're getting ready for the state assessments so we don't wait till that one test happens and that is where we use dibbles I ready and the information from that cooperates that those positive trends and highlight the widespread growth of our students in early literacy reading comprehension and advanced mathematics. At the end of the day, ladies and gentlemen, if our students can't read, they won't be successful in many things. Period. Whether it's a science field, whether it's whatever field, if you can't read, you're destined for a struggle. I do want to end by saying on behalf of our dedicated team for the office of teaching and learning, which has showed it a lot, which includes a lot underneath it, um that uh Mr. Gabriel and uh Mr. Rutz as a director of teaching and learning have done a yman's job of responding to the request. Uh Mr. Gabriel told a story about his first interaction with me which I did not remember. I really didn't until he brought it up that his first introduction was a phone call for me after I was selected and I asked him why are our scores so low? This can't be indicative of the children in our school district. And then he said he called Joe Rutz and said, "Oh my god, we're in trouble. This is a data guy." Um, so we look forward to sharing this. It's a overview, but I could not leave without celebrating the work of our kids and letting you see that the foundation is laid. We have a chance to continue to do better. And we're headed in the right direction. and the money that we have placed and I know it's a lot that you've paid for but I'm telling you those little kiddos are worth every dime and you're getting better money getting a better return on your investment than we have in the past. So Mr. Russ, thank you Dr. Ben. Um let me just preface this by saying this is a sneak peek and this is based on prelim preliminary data. Um, tomorrow at the education committee, um, I'll be doing a presentation, more full-blown presentation, um, with my crew, uh, my three amigos tomorrow to do a preview, uh, of a fuller, uh, presentation that we'll share out on June 24th. And by the way, if the preliminary data they provide to me is incorrect, blame it on them. Right. I'll I'll blame it on DRC. Okay. Um, I'm going to skip some of this for the sake of time if you don't if you don't mind. Two of my favorite norms, however, embrace growth and continuous improvement and keep decisions in the best interest of our students. Uh these are monitors that the Office of Teaching and Learning lives by. Uh as Dr. Ben says, preliminary data that we're going to look at for local data and then the uh PSSA data that just dropped um this uh on Friday of last week for kindergarten and third grade. Um and I'll be sharing more again at the end of the month in the fuller presentation. Um all grades K through three um scored above the national the national endofear benchmark. God bless you. Um that's that's great. Every grade K3 scored above the national benchmark for the end of year. And we had sp spoken uh earlier I think in October maybe the October the fall local data assessment. um we spoke about how students coming in kiddos coming into kindergarten coming out of the pandemic have been further and further behind the the national benchmark when they've come to us. So to see that we're maintaining now several years going on that by the end of the year those kiddos are not just at the benchmark but they're rising above that is good sign programmatically for us. Um again I'll go into more detail um later on but uh the I Ready uh diagnostic which is K8 um in reading we had about 950 students move from tiers three and two into tier one by the end of the year. Tier one is on or above grade level. So we moved 950 students which is uh more students than five out of six of our school buildings uh in the district. Um I always talk about the bucket of growth uh with I Ready that we have think of a bucket as 100% available to students to grow. Um students achieved about 137% of their expected reading growth. Um that's not all that's not also awesome. It's also a third year running of above 100%. Uh last year was 132% of growth. At this time we've exceeded that. Uh for mathematics, we've moved about 1,400 students from tiers three and two into tier one in math. Uh 1,400 students is almost the enrollment of William Tennant High School. Um those students achieved about 119% of their available growth and again that's above last year which was sitting at about 115% uh at the end of the year. Um I excel and I'll share more charts again later on in this month. Um reading grades 9 through 11 showed strong growth in all reading areas uh reading strategies, vocabulary, grammar, writing etc. Uh grade 11 showing uh very good growth in vocabulary as well. Uh math 9 through 11 on the end of year diagnostic forl showed approvement across the board in algebra and geometry. And this was good to see grade 11 in algebra 2 especially that is the year for algebra 2. You'll hear me say this again many times. Ninth grade's focus is algebra 1, 10th grade is geometry, 11th grade is algebra 2 to see those spikes in those years that they're focused on those standards and that instruction is a great accomplishment. Uh this is preliminary PSSA data. Uh this dropped again last Friday. Um what you see in the darker bar to the left are last year's percentage of students scoring proficient and advanced in grades 3 4 5 6 7 8. And the furthest bars to your right, I'm sorry, my back's to the audience here. To your right, that's all grades. That's a composite score. What you see in the lighter gray bar are 2025s. That's this year's PSSAs because we were proactive three years ago and moved to online testing for the PSSA. We also qualify for early reporting and that's why we get our PSSA scores this quick. Unfortunately, that doesn't apply to Keystones. We usually get them midsummer. I wish they were quicker. Um, but what you can see here is that 83% of the grades scored above last year's scores. And I'll go grade by grade in a moment. This is grade three. Now, although we've seen a decrease um from 2021, we're starting to see an increase tick back up. Um and again still dealing with some residue um from the pandemic and students um and our population um demographics. Um I believe third grade is the largest cohort we have of EL students. That is a factor, not a reason. It's a factor. Um we're continuing uh it's only year two uh with Whit Wisdom our standards aligned uh ELA curriculum that we put in again a year ago. So we're doing with that. uh you'll see grades six through eight are starting to score um their their scores are starting to increase that kind of end of the line students who have been in a program for numerous years. Uh grade three um had a decrease slight decrease this year. Again, we're going to continue to monitor that. It's not unexpected in year two. Um you're going to hear me make a connection between where we are with math um in a few minutes and where we are in contrast to that with ELA. Uh grade four really good sign. Um you remember earlier in October we talked about I think Mr. Godson it was you who pointed out because we talked about this egg committee the national and state drop in fourth grade scores nationally in reading. Um it's not something that was a surprise. We've seen it nationally but now we're starting to tick up. Um, again, a good sign because we're starting to go into several years of a standards aligned curriculum. Uh, fifth grade saw an in uh increase as well, uh, year-over-year. So, very happy to see that. And what you start to see in grade six, seven, eight, you'll see this in a second. Um, this is only the first year of Wind Wisdom uh, for sixth grade. We're moving it into sixth grade this year, seventh grade next year, the eighth grade, eighth grade after that as we're moving away and transitioning away from springboard. uh the college board curriculum that it is being sunset. So we had a fairly large increase year-over-year just in the year one of implementation uh with sixth grade. Uh seventh grade we're pushing 60% uh which is a really good sign. Six out of 10 students scoring proficient or advanced on the PSSA at seventh grade and eighth grade also hitting 59% having a great jump over last year as well. Statistically, these are very good signs, very good jumps, uh, year-over-year. Uh, this is year four of springboard. Um, we're going to talk about math again in a minute, how many years we've been in that curriculum. what you start to see, and I know I don't have Keystone scores up here, but if you remember when we shared state data in November, November 24th, I think it was before Thanksgiving, um we saw an 11% jump in Keystone literature scores, and those increases have been going up because students are metriculating through a standards aligned reading program through the system. So, when they're in there longer with consistency in time, you start to see achievement pop. Mr. got extended after years of growth. So, it's a good sign. Uh this is mathematics again. 83% of students uh PSA grades 3 through 8, excuse me, increase the number of students scoring proficient or advanced. Anything in the dark gray bar are 2024 scores and in the light gray bar 2025 scores. And again, I'll break these out individually by grades. Pretty good. No, thank you miss uh thank you dumb um pretty good uh grade three uh increase over last year. Again, you can see the trend line, but the graph speaks for themselves a bit. You can see where we were coming out of the pandemic uh with scores and where we are now. I should have pointed this out earlier and I apologize I didn't. You can see that one of the notes I added here. It might be tough to see, but we are not only above levels of pre- pandemic, but the highest levels we've hit since 2015. So, when Dr. Ben talks about exceeding where we were that year before pandemic or coming out of that, that's awesome. That's great. We're also seeing achievement levels highest since they've been going back to 2015. Uh, grade six in math. Um, again, this is year six of CPM math. When you get into those years, teachers have chance to master the content and teaching the instruction students have gone through metriculated through a curriculum. You start to see these results. Grade seven, we're shining a light on a little bit. See what that drop could be. It could be cohort related. We're not sure. But the good thing is in grade eight, it pops back. It pops back again. Highest level since 2015. Just some key points. Um evidence-based systems approach. We've talked about curriculum, instruction, assessment, and systems for years. We wanted to just show a a a different chart here to give a little bit of a different perspective. The red line you see is pandemic and the dotted line is when we got back to testing. We got back to testing. So you can see here in math especially grades 3, four and five have been aligned to a standards curriculum aligned curriculum the longest. You can see that we still see if you look at grades six and eight they are starting to trend in the right direction. We put a little note here. Three to five years. Educational research, evidence-based research shows takes about 3 to 5 years of consistent implementation of aligned curriculum to start seeing positive student outcomes. Here's ELA. I mentioned earlier it's lagging a little bit, if you will. We're seeing really good results. We've we we're doing great growth. where we're we're lagging a little bit in achievement is because students have not had exposure to those curricula for as long as we're seeing in math. We're starting to see that increase even in win wisdom in year two. But again, remember what I said earlier when we saw that increase in ELA in grade 6, 7,8 I mentioned Keystone literature. Those students have been in springboard for four years. So having that time and consistency starts to have a positive effect on student achievement. Why our students continue to grow and chief? Again, clear goals for teaching and learning. Say this a million times. Curriculum, instruction, assessment and systems, wellsupported teachers, a positive school learning environment, and effective use of data to make decisions. Can I take any questions from anybody or Dr. Ben and follow comments? That's fantastic. Thank you. Great job. Many thanks to the team. Uh uh Mr. Gwood mentioned earlier, coaches, math specialists, reading specialists, administrators that work in the office of teaching and learning, student services, silos have been broken down. We are one big team and we're all rowing in the same direction here. It's people. It's a lot of people. Thank you. Yeah, Mr. Russ, I you stole my thunder kind of, but I wanted to just build on what you said. Um, you know, it it's easy with all those charts and numbers to lose sight of what really matters is the people that implement this. No matter the quality of the curriculum, no matter what books you buy or whatever you put in place, if you don't have quality people to implement it, it goes nowhere. So, that's everybody. Central administration, building level administration, teachers, support staff. Without everybody being quality, it doesn't go anywhere. And you know we've heard you know ROI I mentioned a couple of times return on investment um you know the return are the grades or how great and and those numbers but the investment is the people and without the ability to attract and retain retain quality people we don't go anywhere and students they don't go anywhere so I just wanted to make sure that doesn't get lost that that's that's the most important part of it. Thank you. I just wanted to point out when you looked at the pyramid. Yeah. In this case, it's better to be at the bottom than at the top. I'll be sharing out the tiered pyramids more tomorrow. You'll see that little preview for you, Mr. Cox. Look at it. Uh, but we'll talk about that more specific numbers to have the three of you preview that. Um, and I'll break down that that data a little bit more tomorrow. But it's it's really good to see that many students moving in through our system. Um, again, considering our demographics, and you've heard me say it a million times, growth comes before achievement, um, the growth matters. Where we take students from September to June matters a great deal. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I I do want to finish if you give me two minutes to celebrate. Um, did they have it, Colleen, that I asked for? Yes. Um I would be remiss because it's a a significant significant milestone if we don't take a moment to um recognize uh Richard because for his service to Centennial and um there was a our new communications and marketing specialists was able to get Fox News to come out. So if you didn't see it, you're going to get to see it now. And we just want to and to all those people over there. They they they transport about 4,000 kids every day, twice a day out of our 5,300. But this is a milestone that very many people won't ever come close to to reaching. So give me two. It's about 2 minutes. We'd be remissed if we didn't close out with another joyous, happy moment rather than Tom Greenwood's doom and gloom. Day in Bucks County honoring the incredible legacy of this school bus driver. Rich Kutz served the Centennial School District for more than five decades. He finished his last route today just shy of his 80th birthday. Our Kelly Rule was there for the sendoff. I just take it day by day. That's all. Day by day for 53 years. Rich Kutz made this walk at the Centennial School District Transportation Yard to board a school bus to head out on his Warminster route. This part has certainly changed over the years. The first school bus he drove had no power steering and manual doors, no radios. They had a lever here and you just reached over and you open up the door that way. It was uh a six shift floor in the floor. You had a double clutch. Uh, a lot of times you can start off in second gear, which was a break. Could says his decades behind the wheel was one of two jobs for some time as he also worked for 46 years at SPS Technologies. His wife by his side, gaining two children and five grandchildren of his own over the journey, but also becoming a part of so many other families. The one family I' I've been taking their children in over 14 years. Hood says with that one family, he just finished driving their youngest child after driving their three older children. Fitting as he also drove his last route today, just shy of his 80th birthday, he says it's officially time for retirement. If you take it day by day, you know, I'm you're here. You know, it's 50 53 years. You know, it's hard to believe. It might strike me maybe tomorrow or next week or whatever that I'm finished, but you know, after 53 years, you know, you get tired. you know, be able to sleep in a little bit. And his colleagues couldn't let him go without a proper send off. You have to have patience, a lot of patience, and that comes with experience, which is which had quite a bit of it. Congratulations, presenting him with a crystal for decades of transporting the district's precious cargo and this bench with a plaque in his honor, which will stay at the transportation yard. I'm happy for him and I'm sad that he's not going to be here any longer cuz we always gave each other a thumbs up on the road. Your body can tell you when you're ready to go. That's for sure. I have a few things going on. Yeah. Yeah. Nothing definite. Yeah. Number one is sleeping in. Number one. Yeah. In Warminster, Kelly Rule, Fox 29 News. Hello, I'm Ricky Ser High School. you. So, uh, congratulations to him and thank you to Chris for arranging that and then the team for reminding us to take that moment and getting that loaded up for today um to recognize one of our own. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Moving forward with the approval of the agenda. Be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors 4.1 approves the June 10th, 2025 board agenda as per attached. Are there any corrections that need to be made that are allowed by PA law? Second. Second by Mr. Hardline. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Passes 7 nothing. Thank you. Um, public comments by residents on agenda items. We don't have any that are on agenda items. Um, could we move to six consent agenda, Mr. Goodson? Okay. Uh, we have a number of items. Can we move them all together? Seeing no objections. Be resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors 6.1A approves the minutes of the May 13th, 2025 work session regular school board meeting. 6.1B approves the minutes from the May 27th, 2025 committee of the whole meeting. 6.2 Personnel 6.2A Inservice passing 6.2B 2B terminations 6.2 C rescended job offer 6.2D resignations 6.2E authorization to employ 6F 6.2F leaves of absence 6.2G and of assignment 6.2H change of status and 6.2I to I teacher leaders 6.3 exceptions to policy we do not have any 6.4 appointments we do not have any 6.5 waiverss none 6.6 Conferences and travel 6.6A 6A approves the overnight conference request for the communication and marketing specialist to attend the National School Public Relations Association annual conference July 19th to the 23rd, 2025 in Washington DC. District cost not to exceed $2,38160. 6.7 bids and quotes. 6.7A approves a the three-year renewal of managed methods and a K12 cloud security management tool effective June 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028. Total district cost for 3 years not to exceed $57,498. 6.7B approves the three-year quote for the purchase of U Mine Cast through the Bucks County Intermediate Unit total district cost for 3 years not to exceed $29,670 6.8 Assemblies Speakers and Programs None. 6.9 District Licenses and Services. 6.9A approves the technology pool consortium agreement with the Box County and the media unit for the 2526 school year cost not to exceed $880. 6.9B approves the renewal of the Valley Day School ESY 2025 program contract for student 11-13 for the summer program 2025. Tuition is based on the needs in the IEP projected projected cost for student 11-13 is $9,167. 6.9 C approves the renewal of the valid school ESY 2025 program contract for student 4-12 for the summer program 2025 tuition is based on the needs in the IEP. The projected cost for student 4-12 is $9,167. 6.9D approves the renewal of the Valley Day School ESY 2025 program contract for student 5-18 for the summer program 2025. The tuition is based on the needs in the IEP. The projected cost for student 5-18 is $9,167. 6.9E approves the 2025 2026 renewal agreement between Lakeside Educational Network and the Centennial School District for inschool counseling services and student placement slots as per uh the attach the total amount due in five in school four five in school counselors is 46565,000 The total amount due for 13 student placement slots is $538,850. The total amount of contracted cost for Lakeside Educational Network is 1,3,850. Additional services for and cost will be determined as required by the students IEP. 6.9F app approves the renewal agreement to participate in the Pennsylvania Schoolbased Access Program SBA for the 2526 school year, no cost to the district. 6.9G approves the agreement with four uh source for nurses to provide a substitute services for the RN and LPN nurses effective July 1st. uh 2025 through June 30th, 2026. District cost is determined by the use as rate as per attached. 6.9H approves the agreement for student 18-8. District will pay $5,900 for the parents legal representation. 6.9 I approves the agreement for student 1-7 providing an educational fund in the amount of $4,875 for legitimate expenses as defined in the agreement and reimbursement of parents legal fees in the amount of 4,000 total is $8,875. Textbooks? None. 6.11. Acceptance of donations, grants, and requests. None. 6.12. Change of academic programs, positions, and stipens. We have none. Second by Mr. Ginhard. Any discussion? So, I just wanted question Mr. Godson. Someone could answer for me in 6.9 H and I why do we pay parents legal expenses? Will Gina answer that? Gina Ros answer. Hi, good evening. Um that's often time part of the negotiations that our attorneys and their attorneys um work together to identify. It is part of almost every agreement that you would see coming past you. My question still is why if the attorneys want to go out together and you pay mine, I'll pay yours and everybody's happy. Why is that something that school districts do? So the case law that it's connected to due process cases and things like that, often times school districts are liable for. So that is a common piece of that. So if you go to a due process and you lose a due process, you're automatically required to pay for those attorney fees without negotiations, things like that. So I think school districts will always lose in these court cases. We they never win. Better lawyers then [Music] I think Jane wanted everyone to know that she's been on the call since 7:05 watching the meeting. We just can't hear her. She had to unmute herself and now we hear her phone now. So, she should be able to speak now. Are you there, Jane? Yes. Perfect. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Any further discussion on these items? See none. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Passes. Eight. Nothing. Now. Thank you. New business. Be it or do we want to do these separate? Old business. Oh, old business first. All right. 7.0. Uh 7.1. Uh, be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors removes from the table the Act 93 administrators compensation plan effective July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2029. This item was tabled at the uh May 27th, 2025 board meeting. Second. Second by Mr. Ginhard. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? I I Any opposed? Any abstensions? Passes. 8 nothing. All right. Now, moving on to new business and we will take them one at a time. Yeah, cuz I do I do want to discuss 8.1. Um, be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors 8.1 approves the Act 93 administrators compensation plan effective July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2029. Second second by Mr. Ginhard and then Mrs. Parson would like comment. I understand why we we were going to do the 3% across the board because that's what we've been giving. But everyone got a chance to see our budget that we have no money. It's it's not a shock. It's not a surprise. It's it's we don't have the funding. So the previous act 93 um correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Greenwood, it was 1% and then it would go up based on the resources that we have available. So, they still got the increase, but it wasn't in a contract that they would get that full 3%. And unfortunately, when it comes to our budget, many of our board members don't vote for an increase. Without an increase, the 4%, we cannot afford this. I can't stress it enough. The taxpayers are going to fund this. We cannot afford to keep putting money out that we do not have. So if we could change it to what it previously was, it was 1% and then the resources that we had available, we would still give it to them. But if we didn't have it, it wouldn't be all on our community. Now, is is that accurate, Mr. Greenwood, that it was 1% and then we still were able to once we had the resources, but it wasn't in a contract. We weren't obligated to do it. Yes, there was a minimum of 1% and then we utilized the resources that we had whether that's the Bureau of Labor Statistics um to assess what increase was and there was never an increase below actually 3% but you're correct it was the the agreement was 1%. So if everyone wants to agree right now to a 4% increase that's fine but our board usually does not do that so we will not have the money to do this. So, a yes for this is saying yes, I want to pay you this because we do, but saying yes to this, we don't have the money. It it it's important to recognize the 4% is on the tax increase and not on the salary increase. So, this Mr. Greenwood, what does this end up being? What what percent? I thought you didn't we say 3.4% increase 3.46 to Mr. go to the the 4% I think is the act one. Yes. The salary increase is you know almost 3 and a half it's 3.46% uh increase over uh over the current year and not with the doom and gloom but next in two weeks when we do the budget if we don't do the full 4% how are we going to pay for this? That's where we'll have a problem. That's what I'm saying. We usually our board members don't usually put through that 4%. We cannot afford this. We have no money. The the other piece to this is that you're correct. It it it's a tough it's a tough balancing act between budget and between getting quality people and as we have seen with our test scores going up all the improvement it's due to the the people doing a great job. Building administrators are a big part of that building principles building assistant principles. So the the choice I think that's facing us is we need to be able to have quality people and to do that you have there has to be certainty for people know what they're know what's going forward for them. So if we short change those people too much we're not going to be able to retain or retract new people when people retire out. So there's the money aspect of it, but there's also going forward looking at making sure that we have the right people and we can attract and keep the right people to keep our students going in the right direction and and achieving what they're achieving. Since this is going to be a legal document, Mr. Greenwood, would we be able to update it to the way the words were the 1% and then with the resources? They never did not get the 3%. But in the wording, we could use 1% and then at if the resources are available, we'll use them. Then we won't be obligated if we don't have the funds. Crossing, you can't update a contract just because you want to. It has to be agreed upon. We can't we can't do a contract we can't pay for either, Mrs. Broncado. We can't afford this. I beg to differ. Go ahead, Mr. Hart. So, um, if I may here, I would request that the negotiating team on both sides, which has done a monumental job. It is, I mean, I'll go back to, you know, with the exception of one individual up here, we are all volunteers. We all spend our time and volunteer to do this. And a lot of his extracurricular activities that goes on behind the scenes that nobody sees. You see the board meetings, but you don't see the phone calls where I'm on the phone with Mr. Greenwood two, three times a week. You don't see the negotiating team that'll spend three, four, five nights with the act 90 um three agreement group going over things to to tweak out contracts. The endless nights that go into collective bargain agreements with the teachers and all of that. Um we are in a very difficult situation. I would request that the negotiating team goes back with the negotiating team from the act 93 agreement because you can't just say up here we're going to change it because it is a negotiation. They have to go back and forth. They have to meet with them and hammer out the details. Okay. Um that we do some type of hybrid of the previous agreement and this agreement. I know we've had some discussions surrounding days being given back and and paid for vacation time and and all those types of things. You know, keeping in mind that we all know that the expense of employment continues to rise. Everybody is cognitive of that. We saw that on our budget presentation and it compounds across the board. you know, we are paying 12% more for services this year in special education that we are outsourcing than we did last year because we are paying for their increases in salaries and their increases in benefits and their increases in in fuel oil and heating and all of that as well. So I respectfully request that the that the negotiating committee goes back with act 93, hammers out some type of a detail, maybe somewhere in between that will soften some of the information. Now we heard some positive things, but we have no control about those positive things. This is one item that we do have some control over. The the only way to proceed forward with this would be to table this agreement one more time. Can we and I will I will yield to Dr. Bettin on this one as our parliamentarian for the most part. Can we table this with some type of collar as to the board's direction that has come up here or do we just need to table it and have the ad the negotiating teams meet once again? Can I just ask how many times we tabled this already? Once. Once. Okay. You can ask for something to be tabled and and and so you can table it again and you can add a expectation to your point table it with a motion that it comes back with your comment of a hybrid and then you all would have to vote on that obviously uh for it to happen. Would we be able to have Mr. Greenwood take a lead on that? to make sure it gets done. Well, no, because the negotiations has always he's our CFO though. I understand that. But negotiations face to face or not have always been the preview of the leadership team of the board and they then invite in whom they wish to have negotiate with them. So, I don't know that the masters of the money over here, we wouldn't include him. That doesn't mean that's the way it's done. I am part of this board and I'm requesting it. I'm just asking. It's not done by the administration. It's not your decision to make it. It's a team decision. It's done by the board. He is in charge of our funds. He doesn't negotiate. He is the only expert here about money. He doesn't negotiate contracts. So, you know, you it whatever action you take, you got two requests and either way, both requests need to have an action on the board. So, if you ask for it to be tabled with your parameters, then that needs to be taken up with a vote. Second, Mrs. Crossson's statement would still have to be a motion and a board vote on else to the point it's a board even negotiating team is subject to the majority of the board. So that's the only way it can happen. One board member can't every action has to be at least the majority of the board in this case that's here. So someone needs to either move forward or make a motion some motion to move this. So allow me to pose a hypothetical here because we have an even number of individuals tonight and it is a 44 vote. No, you don't. Yes, we have an even number with you, Mrs. Lynch. Mr. is not present. So we would have, you know, if we were to end up in a tie. So let's say that you know we have a tie of not tableabling it and then a tie of it not passing. It doesn't theoretically is then tabled or has to be brought back up. Right. It it at this meeting it fails. I just 44 failing. Yes. And a 44 on a contract would also fail the correct. So but it could be brought back at the next meeting is is the point. Yes. I mean have to be brought back because this needs to be finished by July 1. What what happens is is by law if you don't do anything in this contract typically what happens is you just operate up under the current status quo. What did the negotiation uh the team decide or talk about this? Can we say that the last two weeks since we tabled it the last time? What was their thoughts about the same the same things are said over and over again by the same people. So the sticking point is just the 3%. Right? Incorrect. So 3% across the board instead of the 1% and then if the funds are available, we we give more, which we've always had, but we've had that option with other contracts. We didn't give the stipulation if we have more. We give more. We gave them the 3%. That Mr. Greenwood, please correct me if I'm wrong. Isn't their current contract that's what it reads? Yes. I'm not talking about that. But they still got better than 3% last year. Is there someone? So if somebody want if you want this tabled, somebody has to make a motion to table. Can I just ask a question? Is there someone here from that represents the negotiation team? You put him on the spot, but you can't put those individuals on that. That becomes a public negotiation. Yeah, you can't. But is it usual for our CI let me correct on the record also cuz we're saying negotiation act 93 by state law can't negotiate. It's meet and discuss. So, I just want to correct the terminology that exists by state code. It just I just don't understand how our community pays for Mr. Greenwood, who's our CFO, who's an expert in this, and he's not included. That's not true. Well, we've received Does he sit in with you? We've received lots of information from Mr. Greenwood. It It's run by the CFO. This the the CFO doesn't sit in on the actual discussions with Act 93 people. Once information is obtained, agreements are made, it's run past the CFO. He is absolutely engaged and involved giving us his information. Mr. Greenwood, were you engaged and involved in this contract? I think what you're asking, does the CFO actually sit in on the on the conversation? That's not the way it works. The community pays him a ton of money to make sure our contracts are good. So why is he not the three what? Three, four emails with the financial impact. Yes, Mrs. L. Free emails or something. The negotiating team has the option whether to bring in Mr. Greenwood or not. That is their option. Thank you, Mrs. Lynch. So, we rely on somebody who's not an expert when we have an expert. Is that what you're telling me? Mr. Mrs. Cross, the negotiating team has the option of bringing in Mr. Greenwood. It is wise to do so, but it is their option. Period. Thank you, Jon. which we have done. We've received several emails and an executive session at the last meeting where Mr. Greenwood gave us information times numerous emails and an executive session where we have gotten information for the sake of has been involved time uh I would go back to Mr. Hartine you're either going to Mr. Harline made a motion Mrs. cross and seconded. Yes. So if you got a motion, it needs to be acted upon. So I it was more for discussion, but at this point we'll I'll make it as a motion. You got a second. All right. So we have a motion to table um item 8.1. But you need to you have parameters with 8.1. You requested.1. Okay. Yes. Hold on. This is right. with with parameters to to have a contract more similar to a contract an agreement more similar to the previous one with a base plus an escalator at the discretion of the board. Would that sound correct? We're technically just voting on tableling this agreement but with parameters. He put the table it first. Okay. Just the table. Mrs. Brush, can we have a roll call? Mr. Martin. Hi. Mr. Hartline. Yes. Mr. Oh, Mrs. Crossen. Yes. Mrs. Branado. No Mr. Ghart. No, Mrs. Lynch. Yes, Mr. Godson. Yes, Dr. Maguire. Yes. Motion to table passes 62. Now, if you have those requests for per that adjustment to the negotiation team, you can make that as a motion and then the majority of the board has to decide or else it'll come back as is next meeting. I don't I mean there's I don't want to tie the hands of the negotiating team. That is not that that's not what I want my intent to be. I don't necessarily know that going to happen is they could bring you back just so you know without it. Yeah. Okay. All right. I think we need to be clear on what the hangup is, right? So we know what to do going forward. I mean, it it's in that case, I'll make the motion to to come back with a an agreement to see if they can negotiate with the um Act 93 organization to come back with a contract with increases similar to that of the existing 1% with escalators at the board's discretion based upon financial considerations. Second, Mrs. Now you need to do a roll call. Yeah, uh, Mrs. Lynch, yes. Dr. Maguire, yes. Mr. Godson, yes. Mr. Ghart, no. Mrs. Crossen, yes. Mr. Hartline, yes. Mrs. Brancado, no. Mr. Martin, yes. Motion passes 62. Then you wonder why people leave. Well, moving on to 8.2. Approves theou with the YWCA for kindergarten boot camp June 23rd through July 27th, 2025. district cost not to exceed $15,644 as per attached. Second. Second by Mrs. Carson. Any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Bless you. Passes 8 nothing. 8.3 affirms as prescribed in board policy 304 employment of district staff. The board of school directors authorizes the superintendent to make the required employment decisions in staffing for 2025 2026 school year from June 25th, 2025 through August 18th, 2025 in order to maintain the continuity of educational programs and services. These personnel actions will be presented to the board for retroactive approval at the meeting on August 19th, 2025. Second. Second by Mr. Hartline. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Passes. Eight. Nothing. All right. Moving on to policies. 9.1 policies for initial distribution or discussion. There are none. 9.2 2 policies for adoption. We have three. Does anybody want anything pulled? [Music] 9.2 policies presented for adoption. Be resolved. The Centennial School District Board of School Directors approves. 9.2A Policy 103 discrimination harassment affecting students. 9.2B 2B policy 104 discrimination harassment affecting staff 9.2 2C policy 234 pregnant parenting married students second. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed extension carries 8 Z. Moving on to finance. Does anybody wish to have any of the four items pulled? Seeing none, be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors approves the schedule of bills, investments, cafeteria fund, budget reports, general fund cash receipts summary May 2025 as per the attached. 10.2 approves the 2025 budgetary transfers for May as per the attached. 10.3 approves the pending bill list as per attached. 10.4 accepts the pre-approved bill list as per attached. Second. Seconded by Mr. Goodixen. All in favor? I I opposed abstensions. Motion passes 800. 11.1 board discussion and comments. Does anybody have anything, Mr. Martin? Thank you, uh, Madam President. I just have a comment and a question. The comment is I just want to congratulate folks that put together the retirement dinner to honor our employees. I thought that was a very nice event. The people were wellreceived and uh certainly the fuge did a did an outstanding job and I was heartened when at the end Dr. Bton received a lengthy standing ovation from those that were in attendance. So I thought that was a wonderful event. My question is this. Um late last week I believe we all received a letter from the Central Bucks School District. the the highlight of that letter, it's a rather short letter, but the highlight uh refers to as Centennial continues to manage this transition, we respectfully ask the board to be mindful of how Central Bucks is characterized publicly and in media responses. We are particularly concerned and disappointed about a recent comment made to 6ABC by board president Mary Alice Brancado and a comment supposedly which I guess is on tape. We are not central bucks. We care about our kids here. Uh closing the letter indicates that comments such as these not only misrepresent central Buck's values and those of all school districts but undermine our shared commitment to the success and strength of public education. and we are all in this great endeavor together and that going forward we respectfully request that Centennial's board members and administrative leadership maintain a neutral and collegial tone when referencing central Bucks and public and immediate statements. We make this request in a spirit of mutual respect and shared purpose as volunteers devoted to public education and student success. So I guess my question is are we since we all got this are we to respond to this individually? Is there a proposal to respond as a school board or is the president going to respond to the comments directly since they were largely directed to her? They were directed to me and I did respond and I had a conversation with members of their board yesterday. When when were we going to be notified that that occurred? Otherwise, I think I don't know what that conversation was. So, I'm I'm inclined to respond individually. You can respond as you can respond yourself. I I had a conversation. I didn't think I have to make everybody aware of my conversation. What I said was, "We are not central bucks." And then I said, "We care about our kids." Not meaning that they didn't. Two separate sentences. Okay. I check. I'm not sure why we had to um share that except that maybe it'll be in the news tomorrow because they wanted to put me on blast and that's okay. I'm a big girl. They didn't write the letter. The Central Bucks School District wrote the letter. We didn't write the letter. They You're right. They did. And I called the superintendent. I spoke to three of their schoolboard members. I spoke to another schoolboard member who refused to have his name put on there because he knew exactly what the nonsense was. I said, "We're not Central Bucks." That's a true statement. Then I said, "We care about our kids." Also a true statement. Nothing to do with them at all. I don't know what the difference is between us and Central Box except that they're bigger. I think it's important to recognize too that Central Box was, you know, mentioned on many occasions during the last two board meetings or so. Um, so this is, you know, as much a response to what was said at the board meeting from the community. I'm done. I'm sure you are. That was really, really sneaky. But Amen. When we get a letter such as that from a superintendent of schools addressed all of us, the public deserves to know that we've received such a letter. It should not be hidden. All right. And we're supposed to be transparent. That's certainly not a good example of transparency in my book. Mr. Martin, I will. You do what you got to do. Feel better. You go ahead. Um, you know, some of the thoughts from the past week uh that I've had Hold on a second. Excuse me. Some of the thoughts I had shared on on um an email to everybody about transparency. Yes. And there has not been true transparency. So I'm this with the statement about thank you for the transparency message but what they don't know also maybe we should put all our emails on um as transparency is one of my colleagues called me a stupid idiot with no common sense um because I made a comment about something you cannot have an opinion so if we want to put something out there for transparency then let's put everything out for transparency I'm a grownup agree listen I'm a grown-up I don't need to play a game like that I know what I said. I said and I probably said it twice. Not going to say it again. I wasn't talking about them. I was saying we are not Mhm. and we care about our kids. I mean, if you don't care about the kids, Amen. Don't care about them. But I do think that you do. That's all I said. I know you did. So, we're going to make mountains out of mole hills. We continue to do that. But I'm not an I'm not a child. I'm not going to play little childish games. Those can be for other people. A phone call would have been nice. not from you. If somebody was interested or wanted to know about the letter, a phone call would have been nice. No, because that's not what was the intent. I know. And and and I'm okay. Don't worry. It'll be in the from a big girl. It'll be in the papers tomorrow. Don't worry. Well, I'm sure. Well, Mr. Martin, go. Yes, it will be there. You got it, Mr. Martin. Thank you. We're good. It's not often we get a letter like this. I've never gotten a letter from another school district in six years I've been on the board. Maybe you have. I haven't. No, Mr. Martin. Now, I've gotten other terrible ones that I've not read out to the public cuz I'm a grown-up. But thank you. I agree. Thank you. Thank you. I know what I said. I have no I have no qualms saying what I said. You You heard it all over TV. You read it in the paper. Madam chair. Yes. Yes. That's Can we move on? Sure we can because it's only me. Absolutely. No, I mean just in general. There's somebody else out there. Mike, you had your hand raised. I want to change the subject a little bit here. I'd like to wish a happy 250th birthday to the United States Army this coming Saturday on Flag Day to all of our Army veterans out there. We have one sitting up here. I know we have a few in the audience. I wanted to wish you all a happy birthday for your your branch of the service. All right, let's move on. Just just one simple comment. I I do want to recognize we had a great graduation night um June wasn't. Yes. Um very successful. Uh weather was working with us. Um so it was a very successful afternoon. You good? Y okay. Um Mr. Ghart, you're up. Yeah, I'll keep this brief. We uh our last uh policy community meeting was canceled due to schedule conflicts and because we're coming up on the end of the year and the uh summer break and there's things to do revolving around that, we're not going to be rescheduling another one until the startup of the uh the next board session after the summer break. That's it. Sure. Mr. Gard, you want to keep going? Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Goddess. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So, the PCIU report um I'll turn the mic mic on here. Um a lot of events has taken place. You know, of course, they had graduation last night um at the Box County IU. It was held at Delval University. Um was successful. Again, I unfortunately did not manage to get there in time because we had a very long uh MBIT board meeting last night. But on top of that, uh the IU had us uh a reading Olympics and there were many teams that participated and they participated in three rounds. Um they also held a Bucks County student forum where s 14 high schools participated including William Tenant. They also had the Box County IU Student Art Gallery and the Centennial School District was represented by Maria Gamak. uh on uh later they had did the chief science office program and they attended to attend attended the special program in Washington DC and several other competitions you know took place at the IU or with the IU. Uh there was a government STEM program. There was an inter invention convention program. There was a PA media and design competition. There was a STEM design challenge. Um uh they have also um gotten the short-term funding for Head Start that is running out on June at the end of June. So they have yet to receive renewal for the uh future. There was a an MTSS leadership program. Uh they finished the uh third year with the last session with a better uh focus on integration of special education services. That's it. Yeah. Mrs. Rosski. Okay. So I have two things from PSBA. One I found really interesting, a state program boost special educator numbers to combat teacher shortages in special education. The Pennsylvania Department of Education implemented the accelerated special educator certification program in 2023, which provided 1.5 million in grant funding to institutions of higher education to facilitate the process of becoming a special education teacher. Earlier this year, the program produced the first cohort of 140 teachers prepared to take jobs in special education in PA classrooms. The second round of awards for the program announced on PA gov this spring will provide more than 1 million to 14 postsecary institutions helping Pennsylvania schools train more qualified special educators faster which we desperately need. So that's a good one. And the other one, which it's kind of shocking because my son's older, but um kids media use the data that they record it, 51% of children ages eight and younger. Eight eight and younger now have their own mobile device, up from 45% in 2017. And then they had 39% of children ages 5 to eight use an app or device that utilizes AI to learn about school related materials in 2024, which I mean I struggle so I think that's amazing. And then on the average children eight and younger had 2 hours and 27 minutes of screen time per typical day in 2024 and it's on the rise. So, I just thought that was alarming that I mean I know I'm stuck to my phone, but now when you're between 5 and 8 years old, you're also stuck to your phone. Yeah. Something to look out for, Mr. All right. Um, let me turn my mic on here. Um, unfortunately, work has not allowed me to be at the last meeting or two for the CF, but I do want to bring up some highlights. Um, if you go to their website under the under the events tab, there is still time to um, purchase tickets for the Ultimate Disney Experience. Um, so please click on the link there for that. We have the fth annual Bruce Beaten uh, memorial golf outing which will be this coming Monday the 16th. I believe there are still some spaces if there are some individuals that wish to um, to participate or to take place. And then the last thing is um you know, Giving Tuesdays. Keep in mind that uh a uh guess an e alert went out regarding the food pantries and the summer uh meal programs as well. So they will be operating during the summer for all those that are in need. Also moving right along to legislative liaison. We discussed quite a bit tonight about some of the information um that is out there pending. Again, there are slews of bills that are going back and forth, making their way from appropriations in and out of education, second and third readings. So, there is a lot that is still going on out in Harrisburg. I agree with Mr. Greenwood that we're probably no closer to a budget right now than we were back in January. Um hopefully in the next 3 or 4 weeks though, they'll sharpen the pencil and put something down so that there is at least some guidance. Um so, we have an idea what's going on. So, that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Um Mr. Ginhart. Yeah. Um quickly, as the uh school year is over, I'll look towards the future and uh MBIT Executive Council approved the addition of a new electrical teacher last night, which increases the size of the electrical program. Um it's still a very popular program. So, um, going forward the next year, anybody wants to be involved in that, you still have to get your paperwork in early, but it has the size of it has been expanded. and looking towards the start of the new school year. I just want to remind everybody of the student needy fund that is in place to help students who need supplies um for MBIT such as cosmetology students needing um a cosmetology kit. Um students in the trade programs needing some tools or an apron or something or or tool belt or something like that. if they can't afford it, there's a fund in place to help students that are having difficulty and they're always taking donations for that. So, if it's something you feel like you want to do, contact NBIT and they'll make that happen. Thank you. Um, we have uh additional community comments. Um, you have three minutes. If you could come up to the microphone, state your name, what street you live on, and what township, please. Um, Jack Bailey. [Music] Hi, my name is Jack Jack Bailey. I live on Acorn Drive in Warster. Uh, basically just wanted to come here and let you guys know we are putting in a processing request for an attendance exception. Um, our son Nicholas um will be starting middle school in the fall. Um he started at Willowdale Elementary in uh kindergarten and during that year uh he was reassessed by the school's psychological behavior assessment team and uh he was determined to be autistic. Uh it was suggested that he switch from Willo and attend the autistic support classes at Davis Elementary for first grade. Um and since being at Davis um he's made tremendous progress while attending those classes. um and a third grade support teacher decided to slowly transition him to general education classes. Uh by fourth grade, Nick was fully transitioned um from the general education classes while still attending the social skills support classes. Um this year for his IP, uh it was determined that Nicholas should attend his home school, which is law college. Uh the issue that we have with this is Nicholas has attended Davis for 5 years and has made many friends and social connections there. Uh unfortunately most of those kids are going to go to Clinger and not law college. Uh because Nick is aistic. He has presented us um or I'm sorry uh he has presented with severe anxiety in the past and changing to the new school and then losing all his friends um may bring on this anxiety more and trigger him and have him lapse. Uh so our main reason for requesting the attendance exception. Uh our second issue it was that the transportation from Clinger would not be provided and we were hoping that you could also make the uh make an exception to have his uh busing from the local house to to Clinger. Uh and there is a bus that drives right by our neighborhood every day that uh it's the same bus driver that he has now or had now. Um therefore if uh it is to prove that uh he goes to clinger I that we also get the bus transportation added. Um can you wait one second? Yes ma'am. Um explain the she asked me to explain the process. We get a number of these. Those are exception to policy as you're speaking to the board. So we don't grant them uh once we get them because we also have been asked going forward to make sure the board has also enrollment information at each school because it could impact a classroom. We bring those at once and then the board reviews them. Mr. Gabriel, did we set which meeting yet? I can't remember what we did last year. Which meeting? Yeah, it's the August meeting. It's okay. A few days before unfortunately it's a few days before the school system starts. So, we want we probably may or may not have time, you know, depending on how the exceptions made and whether the it's a it's a few days before school starts. Yes, ma'am. That's an awful lot of anxiety for a little boy all summer, right? The the challenge is that if we overenroll it requires hiring more staff understood. And we don't have all the enrollment numbers. Holy moly. But we can't. So, that's going to it would seriously affect it would seriously affect your child. Correct. Possibly. Yes. So, so is that even a question? It is up to to to you all. The issue that if you remember last year is that when we make these decisions, if it overenrolls by your policy, we end up having to hire another $150,000 price tag teacher. I understand that, but it would be it would be hard for me to wait for an answer to August. This child has struggled to make friends, to do to do better. Do we really want to make him suffer all summer? But it's not just him. You have multiple. Well, can't we do them as we get them? You That was a problem. That's why we changed. Excuse me. Because you were You were doing them as they come and then we end up overenrolling at grade level and having to hire staff. Does he go to ESY? Excuse me. Does he attend ESY? No. No. No. So, could could we do this before August? This is their first time presenting. No, no, no, no. I'm I'm asking Mr. Gabriel. Can we do this before August? I just think that's kind of I'm just going to I understand your point. The reason you changed it is but it's not about being mean. It's about your resource allocation. I understand that. Well, I'm going to say this and no disrespect to you. Understand? On one hand, you're telling us to keep taxes low. Yes. And then we overenroll a classroom when there's space somewhere else because we give an attendance exception. That triggers a $150,000 price tag. And then we have a space somewhere else and then we have to move a teacher. That's the challenge. So we you ask us to bring the data. Yeah. So that you know that you're making an informed decision. Well, we unfortunately don't always have the Roman numbers until that August meeting. So I'm not I'm not I'm not So I'm just trying to give you the facts. I'm not the betting kind. So if he's doing well where he's at, why would I roll the dice and put him at another school where he may flounder? Why would I do that? Well, but he may not. All again, our our curriculum is now the same across board. It's not. So the the the we try to make sure our schools are equal as much as possible. Um so unless there's something unique that he's not getting, it could it could go either way. Now, the board can do whatever you want to do. I'm just stating you we made the change because you were making decisions about something and not knowing the economic impact. Mr. Bailey, I'm sorry. I I look I understand what he's saying. So, how about we have Mr. Bailey um connect with um Mr. Gabriel and to find out. Huh? It already has. He's turned in his paperwork and they responded. You're going to have to keep up with this and keep looking for that letter. All right. I was gonna say so that if you know as things start to shake out throughout the summer should it look like it's coalesing a little bit further if we could move up the information date if that's possible then you know I realize it's very difficult with us not knowing enrollments with individual students coming in and out and all of that but if we could at least leave you with the sense of if there's something that we can do sooner we will make an attempt to do it sooner that we don't mean to to try to put you off But that you know it's Mr. Hardline and what that communication would be is they can tell him that if the numbers look like it's going to be fine. Ultimately it's your final decision. Uh remember you don't meet you don't cuz you don't meet again till August after a certain that's the other part of it. There is no summer meeting and it's an exception that only you all can grant not us policy. Send me an email in July and I'll see what I can do. We'll see what we'll see where we're at. Okay. Okay. And I'm sorry. Yeah, understood. And like our biggest thing isn't really the exception. It's more the busing too because we have to get them to the school. So that was our other Well, I will a normal all attendance exceptions across the board have no transportation. All right. Yep. Thank you. Thank you. Ella Ella Newman, if you could just state your name, what street you live on, what township, and you have three minutes. [Music] I'm I'm Ellen Newman. I live on Longst Drive and what else was I supposed to I'm sorry. Just township and more mister. Thank you. All right. It I just feel I I I really feel sympathy and it's very sad to see when a school board loses the confidence of a community. The last time I was here, there were three rooms full of concerned citizens and apparently the community expressed itself very clearly and the anger was absolutely palpable. I have neighbors who are still angry and upset about the decision not to pay attention to the community and to hire the new superintendent. Uh I think you have to make sure you don't ignore the community's feelings. Uh the big concern is the education of children and this board needs to rebuild some kind of confidence with the people who live in this township. I have no idea how you're going to rebuild it, but you really by not paying attention to the people who are here, you shattered that confidence and it's very sad to see. So, Miss Newman, I just want to add that we did listen to the people here that night, but there was also other people that reached out to us and we also listened to them. I didn't see them here. I didn't say they were here. No, but thank you for your comment. I appreciate it. Um Pat Merins Bole. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay, that that's it. Uh, can I get a motion? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Micro. All right. So, schedule of board meetings, calendar of events. Tuesday, June 24th, 7 p.m. Committee of the whole meeting, boardroom. Tuesday, July 1st, 5:30 p.m. MBIT Executive Council meeting, MBIT. Tuesday, July 15th, 7 p.m. BCIU board meeting. BCI BCIU board meeting at the BCIU boardroom. Monday, July 28th, 5:30 p.m. MBIT Committee of the Whole, MBIT. Tuesday, August 5th, 5:30 p.m. MBIT Executive Council Meeting, MBIT. Tuesday, August 19th, 700 p.m. BCIU board meeting, BCIU boardroom. Tuesday, August 19th, 7 p.m. work session, regular board meeting, boardroom. That would be for us. Monday, August 25th, 5:30 p.m. MBIT Committee of the Whole, MBIT. Tuesday, September 9th, 7 p.m. work session, regular board meeting at the boardroom. That would be for us. And motion to adjourn. Second. [Music]